Taking the affirmative, I must say â€œThe Great Debatersâ€ fulfilled my expectations as an inspirational, well-acted and moving (I got misty-eyed at the end) drama, like others of this ilk: Against all odds, a teacher or coach shapes a ragtag bunch of underdogs into a champion.

The difference here is that the underdogs arenâ€™t so ragtag; theyâ€™re more polished and ambitious from the get-go.

Like â€œPride,â€ â€œRemember the Titansâ€ and â€œGlory Road,â€ their story is based on a real incident.

In 1935, professor Melvin B. Tolson (Denzel Washington), debate-team coach at Wiley College, a small African-American university in Texas, takes his four-member team (three men and the teamâ€™s first woman member) against a number of black-college squads and, for the first time in history, against white schools.

Their year culminates in a debate with national champion Harvard.

The storyâ€™s focusing on mini-melodramas among the students and the professorâ€™s closeted union activities adds tension and a modicum of depth.

Extras: Engaging set, with surviving characters such the woman who was on the team, the professorâ€™s son and a former student, now a debate teacher whoâ€™s a joy to listen to; actors at debate camp; shorts on music, design, costumes; Forest Whitaker interview (he plays the dean); in two-disc and single-disc versions.

The olâ€™ whip-cracker

If you want to bone up on â€œIndiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,â€ scheduled to open precisely at 12:01 a.m. Thursday, you can buy new editions of the three earlier Indie films or the all-inclusive â€œIndiana Jones: The Adventure Collection.â€

â€œRaiders of the Lost Ark,â€ the seriesâ€™ first, still seems the most fun, because of its freshness, its brisk pace and the presence of Karen Allen as Marion Ravenwood, the trilogyâ€™s most appealing leading lady.

The only differences between this and the previously released versions of the trilogy (â€œRaiders,â€ â€œIndiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,â€ â€œIndiana Jones and the Last Crusadeâ€) are 12 new extras.

The teen-oriented â€œGraduationâ€ opened in a couple Bay Area theaters May 2. Itâ€™s out on DVD this week.

Given the dramaâ€™s preposterous premise and bland acting, itâ€™s kind of shocking the film opened at all.

Little-knowns Shannon Lucio, Riley Smith, Chris Marquette (â€œThe Invisibleâ€) and Chris Lowell play high school seniors who plan to rob a bank on graduation day and be back in time to get their diplomas.

They decide on the heist because Marquetteâ€™s mom needs a bone marrow transplant but sheâ€™s used up her insurance and the hospital doesnâ€™t believe in good Samaritanism.

The robberyâ€™s the girlâ€™s idea. Her dad (Adam Arkin) owns the bank and the day he denies Marquette a $100,000 loan for the operation, she discovers popâ€™s been having an extramarital affair with a teller.

The girlâ€™s been accepted at Harvard, so this all may be a commentary on the schoolâ€™s admission process.

Extras: Alternate opening is snappier than the original; cast members come across better in the bloopers than in the film; deleted and extended scenes; commentary; slide show.

Also on DVD

â€œThe Big Trail: Fox Grandeur Special Editionâ€: Early John Wayne Western in original 70mm and full screen.

â€œBotchedâ€: Heist/horror/humor with Stephen Dorff as a thief stuck on an apparently deserted 13th floor in a Russian skyscraper with two incompetent (and grating) Soviet accomplices, a host of odd hostages and a lurking terror.

â€œThe Cottageâ€: Horror/comedy about combative siblings who kidnap a woman who wonâ€™t stop talking, then deal with a psychotic neighbor; with Andy Serkis.